Sunday, December 06, 2009

Nebraska Supreme Court denies murder defendant's claim for post-conviction relief alleging ineffective trial and appellate counsel where defendant claimed that counsel's failure to object to reports of Crimestoppers calls about the defendant was because of trial and appellate counsels' errors. State v. Duncan,S-08-1308, 278 Neb. 1006. any failure of Duncan’s trial counsel
to object to Henthorn’s testimony was not prejudicial. The evidence supports Duncan’s convictions and renders the court’s erroneous admission of Henthorn’s testimony harmless.Duncan has not assigned that the postconviction court erred in failing to find that his appellate counsel provided ineffective assistance. When claims of a trial counsel’s performance are procedurally barred, we examine claims regarding trial counsel’s performance only if the defendant assigns as error that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise trial counsel’s performance.